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Page 469
from Clyro and pointing out how impossible it would be for his lord's troop to pass absolutely unseen by everyone after having been well-noted on the road south. Yes, he had covered every road and track westward. After his first fright had abated, he also had thought Lord Ian might have gone to Llewelyn, and he spent some time searching.
"Was it a large troop?"
"No, madam, ten men and the two squires. It was all friendly land. All men he knew. He did not fear outlaws. They would never attack ten armed men who carried no goods."
"Where is Lady Alinor?"
"I do not know, madam. She has left Roselyndethat is all I know."
"Very well. You may go." Ela turned her head toward a maid. "See that he is fed and given a place to rest."
The words were a mechanical mouthing. Lady Ela's mind was essentially busy with how she should present this information to William, who was fortunately at home just now. Her immediate instinct was to accuse John obliquely of engineering whatever treachery had befallen Ian, but she soon thought better of the idea. William was a fool about his brother, but not such a fool that the suspicion would not occur to him on his own in this case. If John was innocent of thisand it was really possible that he was innocent of it because Ian's visit to Clyro seemed to have been totally unplannedand if Ela implied it was John's doing, doubt might be cast on her future implications against the king.
No, let William come to his own conclusions. The best thing was simply to present the facts and transmit Alinor's plea that the king be warned, so that he would not take amiss her moving a large number of men around the country. She did not wish, Alinor had written, to be accused of treason or of starting a war when all she intended was to have her husband out of Clyro Keep or to punish her own castellan who had broken

 
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